Review: ASSASSIN’S CREED

GAME MOVIES JUST DON'T WORK!

2 Stars

Mini Review:

Dr Sofia Rikkins has created a genetic memory unlocking Animus machine and she thinks Callum Lynch has the memories that will lead them to the proverbial apple of Eden which holds the power to obedience and will end all violence. But does her father have other plans? Will Callum Lynch’s Assassin memories help the Templars eradicate the Creed? Based on a video game series, this film is very CGI heavy, but the star cast gives us a taste of what the movie could have been.

Main Review:

Let’s all agree that no video game based movie has created any kind of box office hysteria that the games and books have caused. Alas, despite a fabulous star cast: Michael Fassbender (plays Callum Lunch), Marion Cotillard (Dr. Sofia Rikken) and Jeremy Irons (Rikken), the movie falls short of the popularity of the game. Assassin’s Creed is a game (and books by Oliver Bowden) that follows the world of assassins who fight the Templars. The game takes you through tasks that lead you to unlocking secrets. And the books are beautifully written, with every book taking you to a different world - Byzantine, Venice, Spain and so on - in order to get rid of the evil Templars.

As movie audiences, you have seen books-turned-movies that show how amazing the knights Templars were (Da Vinci Code and others). The Assassin’s Creed stories set up the Templars as villains because they want to rule the world under one God, their God and they want to silence every other way of life. This seems unfair from the point of view of freedom and free will. It’s a fabulous premise which is exploited by the game and the books very well. In the movie though the need to show all the action overtakes the setting up of the story.

That’s why we don’t understand the importance of a finger being chopped off to make room for the hidden blade. It just seems like needless drama. Plus even non-gamers can figure out that the animus is merely using Callum’s memories to get to the apple of Eden, and that these guys with such a cool technology might be the Templars. Once you figure that out, the film becomes very obvious.

Had they simply based it on the first book: Assassin’s Creed Renaissance, the movie would have been immensely enjoyable. The book is set in Italy, and the young lad Ezio Auditore de Firenze trains to be an assassin after his family is killed by the Templars and learns about the enmity of the two groups on the route of becoming a full-fledged assassin.

The CGI fight sequences are good fun and keep you glued to the screen, but after a point, you want more than just the hero and his gal jumping from rooftop to rooftop. You want to know more about the other interesting characters imprisoned in the same animus prison as Fassbender is. The movie could have been amazing, but despite the collaboration with Ubisoft (the creators of the game) it just falls short like boy who attempts to jump off the roof...

(the review appears on nowrunning dot com)